<B>'42nd Street' Lacks Heart, Soul</B> <P>By MICHAEL KUCHWARA, Associated Press Drama Critic <P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>The staccato sound of tap shoes pounding out the beat is bliss for most musical comedy buffs, especially those who revere ''42nd Street,'' Gower Champion's glorious homage to the American musical before it grew up and got serious.<P>The first few minutes of ''42nd Street'' are among the best ever created for a Broadway musical. Over the roar of the overture, offstage voices call out: ``Julian Marsh is doing a show! First audition 10 a.m. tomorrow!'' As the curtain rises, the audience sees the entire chorus, more than 35 strong, tapping their hearts out for a chance to appear in a show.<BR><HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><BR><A HREF="http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010502/en/theater_42nd_street_1.html" TARGET=_blank><B>More...</B></A><p>[This message has been edited by Stuart Sweeney (edited May 04, 2001).]

<BR>For a month ago or something I had seen 42nd street in Breda in the Netherlands. I really liked it, with the tapdance. Angela Schijf played the main role. You probably don´t know her but she played in a soap in Holland.

<B>Tap-dancing street receives a return visit</B> <P><BR>By ROBERT FELDBERG for the Bergen Record<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>As the show begins, the first thought is that no matter how bad the economy is, it's flush times for tap dancers, since every single one of them in New York seems to be on the stage, dancing joyously away.<P>"42nd Street" is back, although I'm sure there are people who didn't know it had ever left. (The original Broadway production opened in 1980 and ran until 1989, a total of 3,486 performances.) It may be soon for a revival, but the new production, which opened Wednesday night at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts, is a lot of fun.<P>The original cut out most of the story content of the 1930s movies on which it was based -- "42nd Street," "Dames," and two "Gold Diggers" movies, of 1933 and 1935 --and used a thin, basic plot as connective tissue between production numbers.<P>The formula still works in the slightly revised revival, with a strong and winning cast making the smart song and dance routines very enjoyable.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><A HREF="http://www.bergen.com:80/yourtime/street03200105034.htm" TARGET=_blank><B>More...</B></A>

<B>''42nd Street'' revives '80s vibe</B> <P>By Charles Isherwood, Daily Variety Chief Theater Critic<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>In case you hadn't heard, the '80s are back. Already. In fashion, in politics and now on Broadway, where ``42nd Street,'' a very '80s take on backstage pictures of the '30s, is being revived in a gaudy, relentless production directed by Mark Bramble that pays determined tribute to the Gower Champion original in all its David Merrick-style opulence.<P>That production opened Aug. 26, 1980. Its place in Broadway history was assured when the producer took the stage after the first performance to announce, in a gesture that by itself might have won him the epithet Abominable Showman, that the show's director-choreographer Champion had died that very day. The stunned cast burst into tears; reporters raced up the aisles; the show went on to run for more than 3,000 performances.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><A HREF="http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010504/en/review-stagestreet_1.html" TARGET=_blank><B>More...</B></A><BR><p>[This message has been edited by Stuart Sweeney (edited May 06, 2001).]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>'42nd Street,' `Seussical' Set For Oakdale<P>FRANK RIZZO, Hartford Courant<P>The Connecticut premiere of the hit Broadway revival "42nd Street" and a revised version of the musical flop "Seussical" will be part of the 2002-03 Yankee Broadway Series at careerbuilder.com Oakdale Theatre in Wallingford.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><a href=http://www.ctnow.com/entertainment/stage/hc-oakdale.artmar05.story?coll=hc%2Dheadlines%2Darts target=_blank>More</a>

Broadway's Best Shine on 42nd Street By Raymond Stults for The Moscow Times

Already the toast of Broadway, Meredith Patterson (front) is likely to become the toast of Komsomolsky Prospekt for her performance as a small-town girl who becomes a star in "42nd Street."

There's no need to fly to New York for the taste of a Broadway musical, when the real thing can be found right here in our own backyard.

The 1980s hit "42nd Street" has found its way to Moscow in a joyful, rousing and thoroughly idiomatic English-language version straight from the Great White Way.

The "42nd Street" that premiered here last Saturday at MDM (the Moskovsky Dvorets Molodyozhi, or Palace of Youth) is not, as some might expect, the work of a second-class road company making its weary way from city to city. Instead, it's a production especially assembled for Moscow, with principals and production team -- including two stars and the director/choreographer of the show's recent award-winning New York revival -- chorus line, conductor and key orchestra members all drawn from the elite of North American musical theater.

Walt Whitman High School's production of the timeless classic "42nd Street" truly transported the audience to a time and a place where hopes of stardom can be found in every person, and where dreams actually can come true. Walt Whitman astonished the audience with extraordinary tap dancing, stunning singing, and comic moments that made the audience wish this musical never ended.

"42nd Street" is one of the longest-running Broadway musicals ever, and it began in the early 1930s as a movie. Still playing in New York today, the story of an aspiring Broadway star in the defining role of her life has fascinated audiences for years, and Walt Whitman's production was no exception.

When "42nd Street" invites audiences to "come and meet those dancing feet," it means what it says. As the musical opens, the curtain goes up (but only about two feet), allowing the audience to meet, well, feet - what looks like hundreds of thunderously tapping feet.

42nd St opens in Boston tonight. Here is a preview from the Boston Globe:

Quote:

His new ‘Street’ is paved with color, romance

By Catherine Foster

If you saw “42nd Street” when the musical first wowed Broadway in 1980, or any of the touring productions that followed, don’t expect the show that roars into the Wang for a five-night run tonight to be the same. While the Depression-era tale of the chorine who saves the big Broadway show is unchanged, this touring version of “42nd Street” has new legs. .... Back then, says Bramble, who’s directing this production, the trio “decided to look at 1933 through the lens of 1980. Twenty-two years later, I wanted to look at the show through the lens of the 21st century.”

You’re going to the Wang Theatre a tired theater patron, but you’re coming back a tap-dancing maniac. At least in your dreams. “42nd Street” has docked on Tremont Street, complete with enough luminous production numbers and sharp tap-dancing that you could subtitle it “Bring in the Joys / Bring in the Fun.” You do, however, have to approach this musical with the ability to filter out the you’re-coming-back-a-star cliches, which are purposeful and plentiful and delivered with barely a touch of irony or camp. The musical was created in 1980 as a salute to the 1933 movie, featuring the high-spirited songs of Harry Warren and Al Dubin. Although Jerome Kern had already brought new depth to the genre with “Show Boat,” the film celebrated a time in musical theater when men were nerds and women were wide-eyed innocents.

There isn’t a more affectionate valentine to the Broadway musical than “42nd Street,” Gower Champion’s send-up of the 1930s film musicals made famous by Busby Berkeley. And it has never been better than in the Tony Award-winning revival at the Wang Theatre. With its cast of some 50 performers, slick choreography and colorful art deco-styled sets and costumes, it is one of the few touring shows that actually looks great in the Wang.

If you think "musical theater" are the two most beautiful words in the English language, have I got a show for you. <a href=http://www.cleveland.com/artsandevents/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/entertainment/1045737192319700.xml target=_blank>more</a>

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